The Rio de Janeiro government "has divulged the first details" regarding the privatization process of the Maracanã stadium, according to Vinicius Konchinski of UOL.com.br. The administration of the stadium "will be passed on" to a private initiative in the upcoming year, before the inauguration of the arena, which is scheduled for February. As part of the concession, the Rio state government will receive "close to" R$7M ($3.5M) annually. In addition to this sum, the company that wins the management rights to the Maracanã "will have to invest close to R$469M ($231.5M)." This amount will assure that the stadium will not need to endure more construction. The state government also revealed that the contract signed will be for a 35-year lease and that no one club will be able to bid on the arena. However, clubs are free to partner with another company interested in the stadium as long as this partnership "will not give the team exclusive rights to the Maracanã." Rio de Janeiro state government Chief of Staff Regis Fitchner said, "We do not want the Maracanã belonging to club A or club B. It makes no sense that a club has exclusive rights to a stadium that is considered the temple of football" (UOL.com.br, 10/22).

AEG will launch its ticketing platform AXS.com in the U.K. The platform, which has debuted in North America in select venues since Aug. '11, will be fully integrated within the AEG-owned and operated venue, The O2, this week and powering the ticket sales for all future events. Following The O2 launch, AXS.com will be introduced within other AEG Europe-owned music and entertainment venues on a rolling basis. AXS.com will officially launch with the long awaited Girls Aloud reunion -- one of the first shows to use the new ticketing system. AXS is supposed to enhance the ticket-purchase experience by efficiently managing demand and saving time in the overall ticket purchase. For venues, the platform has the potential of increasing revenues due to the ability of adding additional "nights" in real time, according to consumer demand. With respect to fees, AXS is committed to showing the full price upfront before any transaction is completed (AEG Europe).

Tiger Woods has "begun construction on what appears certain to be his first ever completed golf course at Diamante, a high-end real estate enclave in the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas," according to Eamon Lynch of GOLF magazine. Ground was "broken on the course -- to be called ‘El Cardonal,’ the original name of the former ranch on which it sits -- last month and it is expected to open in the spring of '14." The team at Tiger Woods Design recently "made a scouting trip to some courses in Southern California, including Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club." Woods has said that those "classics will influence his work at Diamante." Diamante CEO Ken Jowdy declined to reveal the financial terms of Woods' deal, but said that they are "partially based on sales of the real estate component around the course." Woods had previously signed "three highly publicized course design contracts, but all of those projects ran aground during the global economic collapse." His first U.S. design was “planned at The Cliffs at High Carolina," near Asheville, N.C. That development was announced in ‘07, but Cliffs Communities "went bankrupt and now lists liabilities of up to $500M." Woods in '08 also was involved in a golf course project in Dubai. His most recent project was "slated for a spectacular oceanfront site at Punta Brava, near Ensenada in northwest Mexico." That was announced after the 2008 U.S. Open, but Lehman Brothers three months later "filed for bankruptcy and sank much of the golf real estate industry with it." The Punta Brava project "has been stalled ever since" (GOLF.com, 10/21).

Officials at Bangkok's Futsal Arena have said that the facility "would not be complete for FIFA's final inspection," according to the BANGKOK POST. Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra confirmed the handover of the stadium to FIFA, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed to the following Monday. Last week, the governor said that construction was 90% complete, and the stadium "would be ready to be handed over to FIFA as planned." Sukhumbhand said that FIFA representatives would "go ahead with their plans" to inspect Nakhon Ratchasima's Chatchai Hall, one of the four venues for the Nov. 1-18 Futsal World Cup. The other two venues are Bangkok's Hua Mark Indoor Stadium and Nimibutr Gymansium (BANGKOK POST, 10/21).